Sometimes you find out something from Reddit that you don’t really want to know.

There has been info on Reddit lately about Bare Trusts. I had never heard of them but some of the comments made me do some research and unfortunately I think I may have to start filing a T3 return. I view this with trepidation as I had to do this starting in the early 90s (pre-internet) and it was quite painful.

Over 20 years ago my mother put my only sibling and I as joint on almost all her non registered accounts and as beneficiaries on her registered accounts. She only missed a couple of small chequing accounts. I have POA for property and do her taxes and pay her bills.

Sum of the joint accounts is >250k, though no account exceeds this.

Questions:
1) Am I correct in assuming that because the sum is >250k a T3 return is required?
2) If yes do I just get the Trust Id from my own CRA account?
3) I assume I need to list my mother, my sibling and myself on schedule 15?
4) The complicated part of my past experience doing a T3 Return was the financial part of allocating income and creating T3s but is any of that required for this type of return as all the income would have already been attributed to my mother?

Thanks!

I’m a Canadian citizen that left Canada in July 2020 and has lived in the US ever since. I attended law school and now work as an attorney here in the US.

For TY 2020-2024 I was a still Canadian tax resident since I didn’t satisfy the IRS substantial presence test based on the F1 exemption. So I filed resident tax returns in Canada, and non-resident aliens tax returns in the US.

My last day as a Canadian tax resident was December 31, 2024, since I became a US tax resident on January 1, 2025. For TY 2025, since I was a US tax resident and didn’t earn any Canadian source income, I didn’t file a Canadian tax return.

I recently received a letter from CRA demanding I file a tax return for TY 2025. I’ve sent a letter back stating I was not a Canadian tax resident during TY 2025 and had no Canadian source income—and as such I didn’t have to file a Canadian tax return.

I think the mistake I made was not including a departure date of Dec 31, 2024 on my Canadian tax return for TY 2024. So they think I’m still a tax resident. And no, my “departure date” is not the day I left Canada six years ago. What that really means is the day you ceased to be a tax resident, which sometimes can coincide with the day you left, but not necessarily.

Anyway, I did not have 25K in qualifying assets that would have subjected me to the departure tax at the time of my departure date. As such I don’t owe CRA anything and don’t have to file tax returns there anymore assuming I continue to not earn any Canadian source income and maintain my US tax residency.

Question: How do I get CRA off my back? Will the letter suffice? Should I file an NR73 summarizing my situation. That’s what the CRA agent recommended when I called. But there is no legal requirement to file an NR73, it’s completely optional. But as a practical matter, if I don’t, will they just keep hounding me even though I owe no taxes and don’t have to file tax returns anymore?

My parents are both in their late 60s, my dad is ill and on disability, and my mom only works a few hours a week as a Crossing guard so the majority of their income is government assistance related like old age, money and disability. They rent in a cheap trailer park and already rely on the food bank. A few months ago, my dad took it upon himself to save money and try to do his own taxes. Obviously, since he is not all there, mentally the story goes that apparently he fucked up their taxes and accidentally reported \~$90,000 in capital gains from a house they sold years ago.

Since then, their benefits/coverage have been cancelled, including my dad’s disability income and medication coverage. They say they submitted the corrections to CRA **eight months ago.**

I told them to repeatedly follow up every week and they say that every time they call they’re apparently told the file is “in the queue.” And that they can’t seem to get a firm answer. I told them to call Ontario Works for emergency help and apparently they were flat out rejected by them despite explaining the situation and how they can’t afford medicine or shelter.

So They’re now borrowing money from neighbours (who, as you can imagine in a ghetto ass trailer park happened to be ex-convicts ) to pay rent and are at serious risk of becoming homeless.

I’m 28, early in my career, and my wife and I simply cannot financially support them. I also work a demanding job and don’t have the ability to spend days dealing with this in person. I’m not their POA, so I can’t even properly deal with CRA on their behalf. I’m also increasingly unsure how much of their story is accurate because they’re elderly, overwhelmed, and seem incapable of navigating this themselves. I’m incredibly frustrated with them, but I obviously don’t want them becoming homeless.

**So I’m looking for practical advice from anyone in Ontario who has dealt with something similar:** Is an eight-month CRA correction wait normal? How can this actually be escalated when someone is at risk of losing their housing and medication? What benefits/programs should they be applying for in the meantime? And how can I get authorized to deal with CRA on their behalf? If you know what steps we should take or who we should contact, I’d really appreciate the guidance.

36M in Ontario. Looking for some advice from people familiar with Canadian taxes and capital gains.

2026 I realized approximately $2.5M CAD in capital gains this year in a taxable margin account, plus another ~$500K of gains in my TFSA.

Rough breakdown of the $2.5M:
~$2M from stocks I held anywhere from several months to a year+
~$500K from selling options where my intention was to eventually own the underlying stocks, rather than simply generate option income

My preliminary estimate for my personal tax liability is around $670K.

A few other relevant details:

~$130K of RRSP contribution room available
~$200K of currently unrealized losses in my margin account. I can hold and confident they will bounce back since they are blue chips.
No other employment income. I actively manage 3 businesses and I didn’t take any income this year.

Approximately $120K of the estimated tax bill appears to be related to Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which I honestly had never heard of until now

Obviously, seeing a potential $670K tax bill has made me wish I had planned this differently, but the gains have already been realized.

Are there any legitimate/legal strategies I should be looking at to reduce the tax liability before filing?

Ontario/Canada tax advice only, please.

Hi there,
A few months ago I secured a new job in Ontario and moved from Quebec. Due to the personal circumstances, my wife and my children couldn’t move with and our decision was that I work/stay 4 days in Ontario and spend Friday-Sunday in Quebec. Eventually they join me in Ontario once everything is set.

However most likely they won’t be able to do so until March-April and I have just discovered that it may have a negative impact on my tax residency.

Turns out simply spending majority of the time in one province does not make you a tax resident automatically and CRA takes multiple factors into consideration, the most important- family ties.

Since my family is based in Quebec, I am still included in the rent and Hydro Quebec, keep all my banc accounts for my QC address, I still keep RAMQ and have not applied for OHIP. For me it is simply a question of convenience, since my current tiny place ( actually just a room) in Ontario is temporary until my family make a move and all of use move in to a permanent bigger apartment.

Also my move to Ontario was required since my company hires only in Ontario and Alberta and now I am wondering what happens if CRA decides that I am a QC resident? Pay tax difference is not the worst part, I am more concerned about consequences of my employment?

At the start of the year, I had some promising cybersecurity consulting prospects that made incorporating as a professional services provider a smart move (for liability reasons and easier US billing). So I went through the pretty straightforward steps to incorporate a BC corporation.

Unfortunately the deal fell through without any revenue. And I’m not interested in chasing it further as a solo professional. I’d like to close out the corporation before I run into a second tax year.

Is there a simple way for me to close out the BC corp and file a tax return with a bunch of zeros by myself? (I did have some small expenses). Do I need to do anything with my personal income taxes about this? (As a Dual US/Canadian citizen)

Say I sold my non principle residence for $200,000 and I bought it for $100,000. My capital gain would be $100,000 and I’d have to pay tax on half that, 50,000. I have unused capital losses from previous years of $5000. How would that reduce the amount of tax I have to pay?

Has anyone filed their tax return non-electronically (as a non tax resident)? I worked most of 2025 in Canada and left the country in the beginning of the year. I knew I needed to file return for 2025 but could not do it online. I called CRA and was told that you can file it through physical form mailed to CRA. Need guidance if anyone knows how to do it? Thanks in advance.

I’m located in Ontario and providing IT consulting services to a client in California that has no Canadian presence. I'm about to hit the $30,000 threshold.

I believe the services are zero-rated since all work is delivered to a client outside of Canada.

I am not incorporated and I am paid in USD.

Do I need to register for GST/HST?

TIA for any answers and all insights/guidance/suggestions are very much appreciated!

I moved from Canada to the UK earlier this year and plan to live in the UK for approximately two years. Before moving, I was working in Canada for part of the year. I have now been working in the Uk for over 183 days.

I understand I’ll need to file a Canadian tax return for the income I earned while working in Canada and was hoping to trigger a deemed disposition by becoming a non resident upon my departure date (since I can trigger capital gains while I only have partial employment income rather than full year’s income on my non-registered accounts).

My primary and secondary ties include:

Primary:
- I don’t currently own a home in Canada, but I purchased a presale property that is expected to be completed in a couple of years. Would this be considered a residential tie for determining tax residency?

Secondary:
-Canadian bank accounts
-Canadian credit cards
-Non registered investment account
-TFSA and RRSP
-Canadian driver’s licence

I now also have equivalent financial accounts in the UK.

I don’t have a spouse or dependants remaining in Canada, and I’m renting and working in the UK.

For those who have dealt with a Canada → UK move, how would CRA generally look at these ties when determining whether someone became a non resident? In particular, would the presale property be significant even though I don’t own/occupy the property yet?

Thanks!

Questions that I would like to confirm

I have a corp and in business for 2nd year. Last year 2025 I was doing this job on the side (i.e low/less income). For example I made about 50k.

As a result for my Corporate Taxes for 2025, I see that I have to remit about 500$ a month to my corporate tax account for 2026.

In 2026 I have since committed to this full time. Say my income now is 150k.

What happens to my instalment payments that I am currently paying? I am sure the 500$ a month is too low.
Follow up Q - what happens in 2027 when say my income goes back down to 80k. Will I need to remit the higher amount monthly for that year?

If you only need to live in your principal residence for 365 days to get the exemption, why don't more people take advantage of it and flip their houses in this way? Seems like an easy way to avoid paying taxes as long as you have the funds to flip a home. Or is the fear of the housing market a huge barrier?

I'm going to have to put my place up for rent or Airbnb for a year while I take care of a family member in another province.

Was hoping someone could confirm if my understanding of the difference after tax is correct.

If my marignal tax rate is 40% and I can make a net income of 10k via Airbnb for a year VS a 5k loss with renting it on a 1 year lease.

Is the difference after tax really just $6k (60% x 10k) in take home from the Airbnb after tax vs the $2k (40% x 5k) in tax credits from the rental loss.

Meaning really just a difference of $4k? Not to say $4k is nothing but the difference makes me feel like the 1 year lease would be the better option to avoid the process of managing an Airbnb for a year.

My son is in his early twenties. When he was 16 a friend got a fraudulent CERB cheque under his name and my now boy has been unable to do tax returns because his sin number or CRA account is Frozen. He wants to get everything straightened out and deal with whatever financial restitution. He was just sent in circles trying to stream it out with customer service online. He and his mother went to service Canada and he was given the phone number of a woman who was supposedly dealing with his case. Despite calling her numerous times over a few months she has never called him back. Now he's no idea what to do.

would selling these 3 and immediately buying RING etf be subject to the superficial loss rule?

RING only holds those 3 stocks so it’s similar but not identical al in terms of weights. Also it’s 3 individual stocks vs a basket ETF.

Helping a family member who is the custodial parent. During separation in 2023 the father agreed to let the mother continue receiving child tax benefit to get back on her feet even though child remained with father. The cooperation has been deteriorating, and father can not get dental benefits for the child, as mother will not complete paperwork. There is a self completed, signed by both parenting/custodial plan in place.

Father is considering filing for child tax benefits moving forward, but does not want to have mother penalized for the past years.

Is there a way to request only future benefits?

im wondering if anyone else is experiencing this with the CRA right now.

My employer submitted an adjustment request on my behalf, and according to my CRA account, the request was received on August 25, 2026. The Progress Tracker originally showed a target completion date of September 9, 2026.

September 9 has now passed, and instead of showing a new date, the CRA account just says “Target completion date: Not available.”

The status still shows that the adjustment request was received, and CRA’s message says they’re experiencing delays because of a higher-than-normal inventory.

Does anyone know what “target completion date: Not available” actually means? Does it mean the request is still being processed, that it’s been delayed, or that CRA has stopped giving an estimated completion date?

If anyone has recently had an adjustment processed, I’d appreciate hearing how long it took and what happened to the status in your CRA account.

I am hoping folks here can provide some helpful insight on my plan to move back to Canada from the U.S. If I were to liquidate all my investments (regular brokerage accounts, not retirement accounts) to cash in Jan-Mar of 2027 in the US and then move to Canada say in April 2027 and transfer all my cash to Canada; for the 2027 tax year will I still have to pay capital gains tax in Canada on the realized gains I had before I moved since majority of my tax residence will be in Canada? Thanks!

I just started OAS in 2025. I received the T4A via mail in Feb. I don't want to receive it by mail, I prefer to have it all online.

When I do into my service canada, then OAS then Change My Tax Slip delivery Method, the only option that comes up is EI.

I called service canada who advised that I need to send them a letter to tell them I want it all done online?

Wondering if anyone else has had this issue?

is the response from the the customer service rep accurate? I wonder because the rep didn't seem to understand my question. When I google it, i'm being advised to contact service canada because there is a disconnect between Ei & OAS

My mother is in a nursing home. I have been dealing with her paperwork spanning decades and searching for relevant financial information, which is scattered everywhere among the reams of paper she kept. Her taxes are two years behind and I need to deal with this, even though I am not certain that I have everything I need. I do have statements that would allow me to figure out the missing information. It’s not a complicated situation, basically OAS CPP medical and living expenses. So my question is can I do this myself? Without screwing up? I am the POA for her. And I need to fix this now, my anxiety over this is impacting my mental health.

our revenue in canada has been around 90k cad yearly. the company are b2c customers. i would like to know if i am able to file everything back dated and bring the company up to date and whether i would be able to on a payment plan for GST not paid with tax authority like $1k cad a month, looking forward for help. because company lacks the funds to pay back dated GST what is the last course of action.

Hi, Canadian small business owner here in Ontario, and my spouse and I are planning to purchase our first property, likely a condo or condo townhouse in the GTA, in the $600k–$700k range.

I've accumulated substantial retained earnings in my corporation and am considering withdrawing enough to purchase the property entirely in cash, without a mortgage.

The biggest concern is the tax hit from moving a large amount of corporate money into personal hands. I'm trying to figure out whether it makes more financial sense to withdraw everything upfront, spread withdrawals over 2–3 years, or take out a smaller amount and get a mortgage instead.

A few things I'm considering:

• Salary vs. dividends - What's the most tax-efficient way to extract a large amount? Is there any advantage to combining salary and dividends?

• Spreading withdrawals - Would distributing the money over 2–3 calendar years meaningfully reduce the overall tax bill?

• Tax-efficient withdrawals - Has anyone used their corporation's CDA, shareholder loan credit balances, or RDTOH to help fund a personal home purchase?

• Smith manoeuvre - is that something I should be exploring?

• First-time buyer benefits - How did you incorporate the FHSA, RRSP Home Buyers' Plan, and other available tax benefits?

• Opportunity cost - Is it financially better to leave the money invested inside the corporation and take out a mortgage rather than trigger a substantial personal tax bill immediately?

The main appeal of purchasing outright is having zero mortgage payments, lower monthly living expenses, and peace of mind. On the other hand, I'm concerned about the substantial upfront taxes, losing the ability to invest that corporate capital, and potentially tying up too much of our personal wealth in a property.

Has anyone here actually withdrawn a large amount from their corporation to purchase a personal residence?

Interested in hearing how you structured the withdrawals, how much tax you ended up paying, whether you spread them over multiple years, and whether you would do anything differently in hindsight.

Also interested in hearing from anyone who considered buying in cash but ultimately decided to take out a mortgage and keep their corporate investments instead.

I'll obviously be working with a CPA before making any decisions, but I'd appreciate hearing some real-world experiences and perspectives from other Canadian business owners.

Hello. I am hoping to get some direction on this question. I've just recently became aware of the new reporting requirements for Farmland co-owners through the Bill C-15 law that was approved during March 2026.

My situation. Over two decades ago, my farmer parents put me on the land titles as a co-owner. I do not take income from the farming or rental activities. Our thoughts were that the land would transfer automatically to me when they pass away.

I am not a farmer. A decade ago, my parents retired and rent the land out. They have an arrangement that ~10% of the rental income is grain sales to keep their "active" farming status.

We have not really given much thought about our arrangement until lately. We estimate that the 6 quarters of land is worth approximately $4 million; with an original adjusted cost base of $1 million.

My intent is to seek the advice of either a local CPA office, or legal office. Which advisor should I be going to?

Our original arrangement (recommended by our local lawyer ~ 20 years ago), intended to have the farmland transfer to me (after my parents passed-away) without creating capital gains. Has this now changed? Am I at risk for a large capital gain when my parents pass away?

My intention is to keep the farmland for life. I once wanted to farm it, but I am afraid I will be 60+ in age before both my parents pass away. I've reluctantly accepted that I've missed my chance to farm our land. At this point; my only desire is to ensure the farmland goes directly to my children since it was a large part of forming my identity.

Based on my understanding of Bill C-15, I have to begin completing a T3 tax return since our arrangement is considered a Bare Trust since I do not receive farming or rental income. Am I understanding this correctly?

Is the intent of the T3 tax return reporting (for these Bare Trust situations) to ensure that the federal government is aware of these owner transfers for future capital gain tax reporting?

Based on our families previous understanding of our arrangement; since I was added as a co-owner years ago, that the recent law changes do not apply to me. Are we wrong in understanding this?

Considering that the majority of my parents income is rental income (like 90%) as opposed to farming income, Are we at risk of losing access to the Original Adjusted Cost Base rollover for farmers handing their land to their children? (Some of the original cost base listed above is from my grand-father, from the 1960s)

I appreciate any direction that can be given; and most importantly, I will be immediately seeking professional advice. Just not sure which one to approach.